Microsoft is working on making it easier to talk to your PC

Windows 11 has support for voice commands like “Open Edge” largely for accessibility purposes but with the latest Insider preview build, it’s taking a step toward going full Star Trek. Instead of remembering set phrases, Microsoft wants to enable users to give commands in more natural language.

This means you can open the Edge browser with just about any intuitive phrase that expresses your intent to “open Edge.” You could say “Can you open Edge?”, “Open Edge please,” or “Switch to the Edge app,” along with other variations. If Windows happens to get confused, it will show real-time command suggestions based on what it thinks you want so you can direct it successfully.

Interacting with computers through natural voice commands is something we see in sci-fi all the time but now that current tech is getting better and better at working with natural language — we are definitely on our way to making it a reality.

For example, imagine Windows’ natural language voice commands combined with its new AI-powered search feature. This combo would allow users to ask their computers to “open the monthly expenses spreadsheet from last week” without having to remember the exact file name or where you put it. Throw image and facial recognition in there and you could ask it to “find that photo of me at Shibuya Crossing” or “show me all the pictures I have of my dog.”

Accuracy is everything with these kinds of features and it will probably take some time and some effort to get it right — but it’s definitely an exciting prospect.

As for the actual new feature — not the future applications I’m getting excited about — it’s only available right now on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs. Microsoft hasn’t mentioned anything about support for Intel or AMD processors yet but it will surely come eventually. Since this is just a test feature in a Windows Insiders preview build, there’s no saying if and when it will get a general release but hopefully it will.